Low productivity and the high costs of the Social Chapter of the European Union’s Maastricht Treaty are cutting a swathe through employement in Spain, and Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA’s management has finally decided to close the only plant the Italian has in Spain, namely the Cerdanyola, Barcelona factory that employs 185 to produce printers and assemble automatic teller machines. The firm said that it could no longer maintain a factory that was barely working to 70% of its capacity. The plant lost some $2.7m in the last fiscal year alone. A few weeks before the announcement of the closure, management had proposed a bitter escape route to workers at the plant, which took the form of a 13% cut in pay, a number of job losses and an increase in productivity. Unionized workers roundly rejected the proposals to cut wages and reduce the working day; they agreed to discuss an increase in productivity, mobility and the current capacity level of the plant, but insisted on a new exclusive product for the factory. But the negotiating is now over and the closure is definitive, it declared. Olivetti employs another 600 staff in Spain, in sales and marketing.
